compendium-curate

# Compendium Curate — the pointer-not-paraphrase vocabulary discipline You are about to record vocabulary. A generic note/vault tool will happily let you **paraphrase** a definition that already lives somewhere authoritative — and that copy will rot the moment the source changes. This skill is the *opinion* that a generic vault does not have. The store is plain markdown+frontmatter (any viewer reads it); what you are applying is the **discipline**. ## The one rule (the wedge): pointer-not-paraphrase An **internal-register** entry — a term whose authoritative definition is owned by some spec/doc — carries **a one-line orientation gloss + a pointer to the owner**, and **never** restates the owner's normative content. Restating creates a *second source of truth* that drifts. Compendium is a **source of information, not a source of truth**: authority is one-directional, `entry → owner_spec`. > If you find yourself copying an algorithm, a schema, a score formula, a numbered rule, a payload shape, or a version number — **stop**. Write a one-line gloss and a pointer instead. The **sole exception**: **general-register** vocabulary that *no spec owns* (`owner_spec: null`). For that alone the entry IS the full-definition SSoT (nothing competes, zero conflict). ## Dual register — one concept, two glosses Every entry anchors **one concept** and carries two glosses so a reader at either altitude is served: - **expert** gloss — dense, jargon-OK, for someone who knows the neighborhoo...